


The Crisp Air

by lionessvalenti



Category: Captain America (Movies), Marvel Cinematic Universe
Genre: Apples, Autumn, Day Off, Festivals, Fluff, Food, Holding Hands, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-10-31
Updated: 2019-10-31
Packaged: 2020-12-28 02:50:04
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 585
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21129536
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/lionessvalenti/pseuds/lionessvalenti
Summary: Steve takes Bucky to a cider festival for a day off.





	The Crisp Air

**Author's Note:**

  * For [dreamerfound](https://archiveofourown.org/users/dreamerfound/gifts).

The cider festival was in full swing by the time Steve and Bucky arrived. It had taken three hours to drive upstate, and now they were in a thick crowd of people on the county fairground. A few people gave Steve double takes when they passed by, by no one stopped and said anything.

"You think no one is going to recognize you in that?" Bucky asked, grabbing the bill of Steve's baseball cap and tugging gently. "Your most recognizable feature are your shoulders, not your hair."

Steve chuckled and elbowed Bucky in the side. "I think I tried to wear a hat and sunglasses disguise so much that the internet took it as a sign that this is my off time. I'm not fooling anyone, but it's out there not to bug me in the hat."

"But you'll still take selfies if they ask."

"Of course."

The smell of apples and cinnamon was everywhere, and while the choices seemed endless, Bucky ended up with some deep fried apple fritters while they walked through the midway. It was a lot of standard carnival games, but rethemed to apples.

"Try this," Bucky said, holding up a fritter. The powdered sugar was nearly translucent from soaking into the oil. "It's delicious."

Steve tilted his face toward Bucky's hand and took a bite from the fritter. He chewed for a second, and then shifted his cider to his other hand. He motioned for Bucky to hand him the rest of it.

Bucky laughed and gave it to him. "Good, right?"

"It's deep fried and covered in sugar, of course it's good," Steve said before popping the other half of the fritter in his mouth. 

"What made you think of doing this?" Bucky asked. He grabbed the last fritter out of the paper basket and tossed the basket into a nearby trash can.

Steve shrugged. "I read about it in the newspaper--"

"The physical newspaper?"

"I like the smell of newsprint."

Bucky wrinkled his nose. That made one of them.

"It seemed like something different to do," Steve said, and took a drink of his cider. "I wanted to do something fun. No superheroing, no missions. A day for you and me to have a few beers and enjoy the color of the leaves."

Bucky never got the big deal about watching the leaves change color, but when he looked into the distance at the contrast of the blue sky against the orange and red treetops, it was pretty. If that was what Steve wanted to do, then he could enjoy it too.

Steve took Bucky's hand, and his skin was warm compared to the crisp air. It was the one thing that still surprised Bucky about Steve's body, somehow still expecting his hands to be cold like they always were when they were young, when Steve's circulation had been so poor.

"It's the 21st century," Steve said, apparently taking Bucky's surprise for the hand-holding itself. "No one cares if we hold hands."

Maybe it _was_ surprising. The closest they ever got to holding hands in public was touching fingers in a dark cinema and hoping no one noticed. Walking together in broad daylight among a crowd of people would have never even crossed Bucky's mind as a possibility. Until now, it never had been.

"It's nice," Bucky said. He leaned over and kissed Steve's cheek. No one would care about that either.

Steve grinned, his cheeks flushing pink with pleasure. "Yeah. I like it."

Bucky liked it too.


End file.
